better angels: The Firefighters of 9/11 is 343 individual oil paintings of the New York City firefighters who died on 9/11. Each portrait is painted intimately onto a small burned block of wood. Assembled, the work is 4’ high by 21’ long. The compelling personality in each face leads viewers to imagine the individuals – the lives they lived, the people they loved – while the sheer volume of faces measures the enormity of the tragedy. Interactive media will allow the audience to read a short bio about any firefighter of their choosing.
Although I lived in Manhattan for 22 years, I was at home in Colorado in 2001, frozen by shock in front of my TV. Around three o’clock that afternoon someone said, “We think that more than 300 firefighters died today,” and all the horrors of the day suddenly came emotionally home for me. They were the ones who ran into the buildings. Twelve days later when The New York Times printed a two-page spread with all 343 pictures, this project was born.
Abraham Lincoln ended his first inaugural address calling for the nation to heal its wounds by appealing to “the better angels of our nature.” For the artist, these 343 firemen represent New York, the FDNY, their selfless profession, and also – in the way of heroes – the possibility that each of us may rise to the “better angels” of our own nature.
The last six years have been spent creating the painting and finding a path to bring it to New York for the 10th anniversary. Since 2009, my partner in this effort has been the National Fallen Firefighter’s Foundation, whose mission is to memorialize fallen firefighters and support their families and co-workers in rebuilding their lives.
better angels: The Firefighters of 9/11 is now traveling to a series of Firefighter Conventions on the East Coast and we are hopeful the exhibit will be included in official ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary this September in New York City. Updated information and exhibit pictures are available on the project website:
www.betterangels911.com
“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Abraham Lincoln, concluding words to first inaugural address March 4, 1861
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